Hux actor Domhnall Gleeson wanted his character to stick around longer in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The latest (and last) installment in the sequel trilogy as well as in the Star Wars Skywalker saga has made for some divisive stuff, with many aspects of the film frequently being questioned.
It all seems to have gone by too fast for many, but it can often feel like only yesterday that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was about to be released. Now, some five years on, Star Wars fans have experienced everything that the Skywalker saga had left to say. Along the way there was much controversy, new characters and of course, the deaths of some major Star Wars characters and some not so major ones. The main point, however, is that Star Wars has changed a great deal since 1977, and not every change that has occurred over the years has been well received by fans. In fact, it isn’t just the fans who often find themselves lamenting decisions made in the franchise – sometimes even the actors themselves wish things had gone a different way.
The most recent Star Wars actor to voice what he wish would have happened with the beloved series is Domhnall Gleeson. Known for playing General Hux, Gleeson’s supposedly evil character met his demise at the hands of General Pryde (Richard E. Grant) near the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. But during a recent IndieWire interview with the star, Gleeson revealed he wished that Hux could have stuck around in the Star Wars universe a little bit longer. Gleeson admits that while he would have liked to stay, ultimately J.J. Abrams knew what he was doing. Said Gleeson:
It would’ve been nice to stick around a little bit longer, for sure. It would’ve been nice to see the spy thing play out a little bit, but J.J. [Abrams] knows what he’s doing, and I heard a kind of gasp in the cinema when it happened, so I guess he was right.
As previously mentioned, General Hux was originally presented to fans as Kylo Ren’s second in command. Hux played an active role throughout the sequel trilogy, but it wasn’t until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker when audiences finally learned his true intentions. Hux was covertly working to undermine Ren’s efforts to maintain power all along. The General even went as far as having Finn shoot him in the leg in order to cover up the aided escape of Poe, Rey, and Finn. It wasn’t that Hux was sympathetic to the Rebel Alliance, rather that the General was trying to do everything he could to remove Kylo Ren from power and replace him.
It’s easy to sympathize with Gleeson over his desire to remain in the Star Wars franchise – after all, who wouldn’t want to be a recurring character in the series? However, as interesting of a character as General Hux was, it’s hard to imagine exactly how much more mileage could have been taken out of his “spy thing”. There will certainly be no shortage of those who disagree with Gleeson over whether or not Abrams knew what he was doing with the characters and the franchise as a whole, but it’s hard to deny that killing off Hux fit well with the culmination of the trilogy in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Source: IndieWire